The Blue Mountain: A Novel - Hardcover

Shalev, Meir

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060166916 ISBN 13: 9780060166915

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1991

Synopsis

Tells the stories of the founding members of the Feyge Levin Workingman's Circle, Jewish immigrants from czarist Russia who became pioneer settlers of the Jezreel Valley in Israel

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Reviews

Passionate, ribald and tender, bursting with dozens of interwoven tales, this lushly nostalgic novel (a bestseller in Israel) records the loves, hates, infidelities, feuds and enterprises that fuel one community over three decades. It also gently laments the eclipse of the pioneer spirit in modern Israel. Orphaned at age two when a bomb thrown by Arab terrorists kills his sleeping parents, Baruch Shenkar is raised by his grandfather, a Russian Jewish immigrant and founding father of a cooperative village in Palestine. Now a mortician reflecting on the many people he has buried, narrator Baruch mulls over questions that still haunt him: Why did rumors circulate that Grandfather Ya'akov Mirkin killed Grandmother Feyge? Whatever became of Uncle Efrayim, who, before he mysteriously vanished, was renowned for carrying an enormous bull named Jean Valjean on his back? Shalev's colorful, feisty characters and vibrant prose animate this indelible depiction of the birth of a nation.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reminiscent of a painting by Chagall, this portrait of a pioneer village in Israel is strong on atmosphere, color, myth, and symbols but weak on narrative drive. Baruch, a grandson of the pioneers, is the memorialist of a village built in a mountain valley after the settlers had cleared the original mosquito-infested swamps. In his 30s and the rich owner of a cemetery--resting place to the pioneers as well as to Americans wishing to be buried in Israel--Baruch has recently become the owner of a fine seaside villa, a move that prompts recollections of his own. He recalls how his grandfather and two friends left Russia in the early 1900's and came to establish a socialist community. When the trio met the beautiful and brave Feyga Levin, they founded the famous Feyga Levin Workingman's Circle, whose constitution became a village legend. Though Baruch's grandfather married Feyga, the village never forgave him for his obsession with a woman he'd left behind in Russia. The village is peopled with characters like Pinnes, an inveterate rationalist and teacher; Rilov, the watchman and terrorist who spends his days in the sewer; Uncle Efrayim, who disappears carrying his beloved Charolais bull on his shoulders; and Baruch's grandfather, who becomes as legendary a horticulturist as his beloved Luther Burbank. The animals are equally remarkable: Zeitser the mule, ``who had unshakeable principles and a Platform that bent reality like clover stem''; pelicans that brought mail from Russia; and Bulgov the house-cat, turned into a killer by corrupt human society. Evocative, even lyrical, with the underlying magic realism adding to the mythic stature of the villagers and their accomplishments, but there it ends. A portrait, with footnotes, interesting and well-written--nothing more. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Around the turn of the century many idealistic Jews left Russia to settle in Palestine; their efforts laid the groundwork of the modern state of Israel. The Blue Mountain, a best seller in Israel, focuses on four of these pioneers--three young men and the girl they all love--who settle down to farm the Jezreel valley. The strange four-way relationship they form will powerfully affect succeeding generations. Shalev's novel is complex and densely structured, moving back and forth in time, hinting at slowly revealed secrets. His characters are stubborn, argumentative, full of quirks and crotchets, irritating but believable individuals. History here has not been prettied up; the novel at times is as awkward and uncompromising as its main characters. Overall, a demanding but often gripping look at what it costs to make dreams a reality.
-Beth Ann Mills, New Rochelle P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060166916
• ISBN 13: 9780060166915
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 375